Flyers prospects hit the beach for 'Trial by the Isle'

Phantoms goalie Anthony Stolarz met the Flyers' new goaltending coach, Kim Dillabaugh, this week at development camp. (CHRIS SHIPLEY, SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL)

Tedd PfaffOf Calkins Media

Why did the Flyers go to the Jersey shore on Tuesday?

VOORHEES, N.J. — The second day of the Flyers 2015 Development Camp fostered that getting-to-know-you spirit for the 15 forwards, 13 defensemen and five goaltenders on the camp roster.

As these prospects embarked Wednesday to Stone Harbor, N.J., for the annual Trial by the Isle, a day of team building that also includes interacting with fans, they got an opportunity to do something different before returning to the Virtua Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees, for the remainder of camp Thursday through Sunday.

So, in keeping with the theme Development Camp, here are several tales of players meeting coaches and players meeting players.

•Anthony Stolarz of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms met the Flyers' new goaltending coach, Kim Dillabaugh, on Monday for the first time.

Dillabaugh, who had spent the previous eight seasons helping develop goaltenders in the Los Angeles Kings' system, joined the Flyers on Friday.

On Tuesday, Stolarz gave his first impression of Dillabaugh's expectations for these young goaltenders.

"[Dillabaugh] doesn't want us to go out there and do three good reps, and then two OK reps and two bad reps," said the 21-year-old Stolarz, in his fourth Development Camp with the Flyers. "He's about quality over quantity."

This is part of Dillabaugh's priority of keeping players fundamentally sound while letting their relative strengths emerge, a lesson he took from how the Kings won the Stanley Cup in two of the past four seasons with Jonathan Quick, Jonathan Bernier and Martin Jones.

"You want guys to be unique in their own makeup, but we want them to have that underlying foundation in place," Dillabaugh said.

As a former goaltender, general manager Ron Hextall also re-emphasized the purpose of this camp: to develop players, not necessarily to evaluate.

"We're here to watch the young players, and the coaches are here to encourage them to ask coaches how they can improve an area of their game," Hextall said. "It's a week of teaching how to be a pro, teaching nutrition, life skills, on-ice skills and off-ice skills."

Evaluation will come in September with training camp.

One can infer from Dillabaugh that the time to improve is always now.

"No matter what level you're at, you can still get better at your game, so I think that will always be a priority," Dillabaugh said. "I think all of the elite goaltenders out there continually work at their game.

"Until you're stopping every puck that comes your way, there is still work to be done."

•Forward Scott Laughton has a good idea of what lies ahead for Travis Konecny, the 24th overall and second of the Flyers' first-round draft choices last month.

Laughton was that guy as the 20th overall selection by the Flyers in 2012.

Other than a welcoming text that Laughton sent to Konecny after he was drafted June 26, both players said Tuesday they will sit down eventually for a longer conversation. Both from Ontario with birth towns about 100 miles apart — Laughton in Oakville and Konecny in London — they also can bond on team-building day about how they were selected at similar spots by the Flyers.

Settling into his first Development Camp, the 18-year-old Konecny said he takes encouragement from knowing the Flyers moved up five slots by trading their 29th and 61st overall choices to the Toronto Maple Leafs to select him.

"It's a pretty special feeling. To feel wanted and to have a team trade up for you, it's something that doesn't happen all the time," Konecny said. "So I definitely felt comfortable coming to Philadelphia, and I was really excited that (the Flyers) made that move.

"This first NHL camp is a pretty cool experience, but I want to take with me the way they treat the professional game and the little things they're working on, a lot of little things you really don't get to spend time on at normal practices," Konecny said. "Hopefully, I'll take away little things about shooting and skating, and a lot of fitness stuff, too, so I can train throughout the summer and feel prepared."

Having played 36 games with the Flyers in three years, including 31 last season, Laughton has been living with and managing those first-round-pick expectations while working to stay on the roster going forward.

"At the end of the day, I'm still 21, I'm still young and still learning a lot, and I felt I learned a lot in the AHL (in 39 games last season with the Phantoms)" Laughton said. "I don't want to play five years and to be out of the league. I want to be a viable guy for 10-to-15 years."

Part of that formula includes winning faceoffs, which should help at both ends of the ice, to supplement Laughton's skills as a defensive-oriented center, he said.

If Laughton has any other advice for himself and Konecny, it's simply to stay calm.

"There are a lot of people around who say a lot of things, and you just have to work for yourself and to see where it takes you," Laughton said.